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The Best Brownies (again)

You know, the no ‘special’ ingredients or fancy names. You just want a brownie that combines great taste and texture. While what defines a “great” brownie is highly subjective and varies greatly from person to person, for me these are very very good.

I love brownies with a light crumb, crossing ever so-slightly over the line towards fudgey and away from cakey. I prefer to not frost my brownies (just an unneeded sugar blanket if your brownies themselves are up to par). I prefer a crackly top, you know the kind you get from a boxed (gasp) mix. Well, these are lacking that but deliver in flavor and texture in every other way and more than satisfied my craving for great plain brownie. I had made this recipe before but felt they were almost too fudgey and bordering on underbaked (which I feel I may have done).
While you don’t want to overbake brownies (a tester SHOULD have a few crumbs when testing the center of brownies for doneness) or they will be dry and crumbly; you don’t want to underbake them too much unless you are looking for them to sink in the middle and have a dense fudgey texture.

I am glad I gave this recipe another shot. I did change up the recipe ever so slighlty and have highlighted my changes in italics. I watched these brownies like a hawk the last ten minutes of baking to ensure that I did not under or overbake them in my oven.

I allowed to cool on the counter for 5 minutes, then I placed them in the fridge on a trivet for 30 minutes to cool before cutting. I read this cooling method in a baking book I thumbed through at a used bookstore. According to the book, cooling brownies more rapidly produces an intesified chocolate flavor and fudgey light texture. I am not sure if this cooling method is to thank for wonderful flavor and texture or if this recipe just needed a longer bake time than I used in my previous attempt to really shine. Either way it produced a brownie that was phenomenal in texture and flavor. Now if it only had that crackly top……….even without it, these are a winner in my book.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Line an 8×8 pan with foil and lighlty spray with PAM.
In large bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl stir together butter and sugar. Add and stir in vanilla and syrup. Add eggs, one at a time and mix well. Gently fold in flour mixture until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan.
Cool brownies on counter for 5 minutes. Place brownies, still in pan, into the fridge for 30 minutes to cool. Remove from fridge and finish cooling on counter.
Once completely set and cooled, lift foil and brownies from pan. Peel back the foil and using a sharp plastic knife cut brownies.
Store coverd at room temperature.

I am a sucker for brownies. Made some a couple months ago – and I think it’s the last recipe I’ll ever make – dang they were good. Aren’t brownies just divine when you find the right combo of crumb vs. fudginess?

Yummmmmmm…. I love brownies too, which is odd because I’m not usually a big fan of chocolate (yeah, I’m weird, I know!). I think it’s all about the texture. There’s really no dessert that matches the texture of a brownie.

Have you ever tried baking them in the Baker’s Edge Pan? They are pretty popular, especially with those out there that like the edges.

I can’t remember how I got to your site tonight. I was changing up my recipe posted on Cookie madness, Minnesota State Fair banana brownies, and the changes I made produced a matte finish, not the shiny crust they usually get. This time I added a half a cup of mini chocolate chips.That was the only change. I noticed your best brownies had a shiny crust and then your best brownies, again, did not. I wonder if it is because of the additional fat added to the batter from the mini chocolate chips that melted in? The larger chocolate chips don’t usually melt into the batter and that’s what I usually use. I think the shiny crust comes from the fat to sugar ratio. To test my theory I made Cookie Madness Effortless chocolate brownies, once with semi sweet chips and once with bittersweet chips. The batch with semi sweet chips was incredibly shiny and the batch with bittersweet chips-no shine at all.

Don’t feel bad, I love the crackly top on box brownies too. Check out King Arthur Flour’s Fudge Brownie recipe, it says to get that kind of top you should heat the sugar with the melted butter so that it desolves better. I haven’t tried it yet but I’m going to soon. Love your blog!